[kaba0]

The topmost claim was that software quality degrades over time, as entropy must increase. Both of these claims are false, as the topmost commenter did actually say correctly - entropy only grows globally, but it is possibly to decrease it locally at the expense of some larger increase somewhere else (think of a fridge - it decreases the randomness of molecules inside (cooler) by heating the outside).

If we accept this analogy, then with enough care, a software project can improve in quality (paying off technical debt for example, or extensive code reviews by experts). But even letting go of this possibly flawed analogy, while there is a tendency of entropy-build up, very easily observable in my home folder, there exist software projects that do improve in quality over time.

[throwaway1777]

The idea is that entropy increases unless you put in energy. If you are specifically working to keep the code clean of course that’s possible. But entropy, bit rot, etc is the default state without any work being put in to combat it.

[Jtsummers]

And putting "energy" (people, time, money) into it isn't even enough on its own. I've seen plenty of 9-10 figure projects that were still suffering due to a lack of proper focus.

[majkinetor]

Those must be rare like unicorns :)

I don't deal with academic theory and strange special cases - I deal with real, everyday world. You can basically argue out any position if you are clever enough but that doesn't prove anything except that you are clever.